POST-HABITAT III

The challenges of the metropolis beyond Habitat III: a contribution to the New Urban Agenda

International experts, as well as metropolitan representatives and mayors from cities and metropolis from around the world, will meet in order to discuss the key elements that must shape the new urban and metropolitan model of the future to build societies that are fairer, healthier, more cohesive and more sustainable.

The large city of today has emerged as a strategic site for a whole range of new types of operations –political, economic, “cultural”, subjective. It is one of the nexi where the formation of new claims, by both the powerful and the disadvantaged, materializes and assumes concrete forms.

Cities and metropolises in face of the global agenda
Moderator: Xavier Tiana
General Secretary of Medcities and head of International Relations in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona Maty Mint Hamady
President, Nouakchott Urban Community. Mauritania Adama Sangare
Mayor of Bamako, Mali Gaye Doganoglu
Councillor, Municipality of Antalya.Octavi de la Varga
Secretary General of MetropolisNelly Santander
Councillor, Gobierno Regional Metropolitano de Santiago, Chile

Metropolitan proposals for an exhaust world
Moderator: Ana Romero
Climate change and environmental awareness Project Manager at Area Metropolitana de Barcelona Oswar Muadzin Mungkasa
Deputy Governor of Jakarta for Spatial Planning and Environment Alfredo Stein Heinemann
Lecturer in Urban Development Planning, School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester Juliette Michaleson
Executive vice president at Regional Plan Association of the New York tri-state area

10.00 - 11.00

Conference. “Exclusion in the metropolis: poverty or inequality, violence or citizen insecurity”Caroline Moser
Urban social anthropologist and social policy specialist. Emeritus Professor at the University of Manchester, UK
Introducing: Maria Peix
Head of International Cooperation in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona

11.00 - 11.30

Coffee break

11.30 - 12.30

A new operating system for metropolises, based on talent and innovation
Moderator: : Pilar Conesa
Smart City Expo World Congress Curator, founder and CEO of Anteverti Øyvind Såtvedt
Managing Director, Oslo Region Alliance Michael Lake
President & CEO. Leading Cities Maria Sisternas
Co-founder and CEO of Mediaurban, the Urban Content Creation Agency of the Mediapro Group

12.30 - 13.30

Closing conference. “The Elephant in the Room: Cities and the Future of Consumption--A Research Agenda” Gary T. Gardner
Consultant, Worldwatch Institute
Introducing: Salvador Milà
Director of the Presidence àrea, Barcelona Metropolitan Area
Salutations on behalf the president of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area and Mayor of Barcelona
Institutional closing sessionAlfred Bosch Pascual
Vice-president of International and Cooperation of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona
Presentation of the document on metropolitan trends in the New Urban Agenda and institutional statement

Thursday, May 24th

9.30 - 13.00

Field visits (AMB facilities and others)

Visits

Visits are for those registered for the Congress only

Places limited to 25 people per visit (the organisers reserve the right to cancel visits if this number of participants is not reached)

Visit to the Dune Regeneration on Castelldefels Seafront

Departure time: 8.30Arrival time: 12,00Estimated duration: 3,5 hours

Responsible for visit: Public Space Services Department

Beaches are currently the leading metropolitan public spaces, stretching for more than 30 km in eight coastal metropolitan municipalities, with more than 10 million users a year and constantly increasing social use. They have become a cornerstone of the metropolitan area’s economic development.

The effects of storms and human activity, the great urban growth and the building of infrastructures have led to a tendency for the beaches to shrink. Their preservation is a priority, also in view of the effects of global climate change. The AMB has developed different strategies to improve our beaches, such as the Hybrid Dunes project begun in 2014 on the beaches of Castelldefels, Gavà and Viladecans and at the mouth of the Besòs. The project includes creating new dunes, planting native psammophilous vegetation and protecting them by closing them off and putting up signs.

Vegetation is provided with salt-resistant species such as palm trees (butia and sabal palms, as well as washingtonias and tamarisks) randomly distributed in modules and forming groups on and off the strip of wood and sand.

As a priority, new seafronts have now incorporated the regeneration and strengthening of dune systems. One example is section II of Castelldefels seafront, with the creation of new dunes, the installation of sand catchers and the planting of psammophilous vegetation.

Visit to the Ecoparc 2 Waste Treatment Plant

Responsible for visit: Department of prevention and waste management services

Ecoparc 2 is one of the four metropolitan facilities applying integrated management to waste from the metropolitan area of Barcelona.

The plant makes use of selectively collected organic municipal waste (brown container) and unseparated waste or refuse (grey container), applying various treatments. In the case of the organic fraction, a methanisation process is carried out, while with the refuse a selection of recoverable materials is made, and a composting and drying process carried out before it is sent for final treatment. It also has a specific line for processing light packaging.

Visit to the Llobregat river, Güell Industrial Colony and La Ricarda

Departure time: 8,30Arrival time: 13,00Estimated duration: 4,5 hours

Responsible for visit: Infrastructures department

Running for 175 km and with a basin covering 4,948 km2, the Llobregat is one of the main rivers of Catalonia. The final stretch of the Llobregat provides a structure for the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), and around it there are very dense infrastructures, industrial activities of different kinds and residential settlements. The ecological, social and landscape values of this stretch of the Llobregat are high. It includes sites of EU interest included in the Natura 2000 Network.

Since 2006, the AMB has led an ambitious project to recover and restore the metropolitan section of the river Llobregat, backed by the involvement of various authorities. The projects undertaken maximise ecosystemic services and biodiversity, paying particular attention to social use and the role of the area in relation to the quality of life of the more than 800,000 people who live around it. The different projects carried out in this area have involved an investment of more than 40 million euros over the last ten years.

The Güell Colony is an industrial colony of Modernista origin with a collection of unique buildings, particularly the Gaudí Crypt. It is a very beautiful site, faithfully bearing witness to a bygone age, with architecture combining the character of a particular style with the use of traditional materials worked with great craftsmanship.

La Ricarda is a lagoon at El Prat de Llobregat. Like La Magarola and El Remolar, it is a former mouth of the River Llobregat. The constructions of La Ricarda have great heritage value and it features very diverse plant communities: rushes, grassland, water meadows, saltwort meadows, reed beds, and dune and backdune vegetation. Particularly interesting are underwater grasses of different types, distributed depending on the salinity of the water.

Speakers

Dialogue with

Former President of Colombia

Presidente Ernesto Samper

Lawyer, economist and politician, who held the presidency of Colombia from 1994 to 1998.

All speakers

Technical director of the Euro-Latin American Alliance of Cooperation between Cities, in the general coordination of International Affairs department of the of Mexico City government.

Paola Andrea Arjona Caycedo studied Political Science and International Relations at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and is a specialist in International Cooperation and Development Project Management at the Universidad Externado de Colombia. She has served as Decentralized Cooperation Advisor in the Presidential Agency for Social Action and International Cooperation (now Presidential Agency for International Cooperation of Colombia, APC) and International and National Cooperation in the Colombian Federation of Municipalities.

Vice-President for International and Cooperation Area at the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB)

He is also Councilor and the Chairman of the ERC municipal group at the Barcelona City Council.

Before that he was a Member of the Spanish Parliament where he headed the ERC group between 2011 and 2015. Throughout his time as a congressman, he was member of the Constitutional Commission during the 10th legislature of the Spanish Congress, as well as rapporteur of the Law for Transparency.

In 2011 he was the spokesman for the platform Barcelona Decides, which organized the consultation on the independence of Catalonia on 10 April 2011. Previously he worked on the preparation of the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games and worked for the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Organising Committee.

He is a Doctor in History and has been Professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), as well as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago (US), University of London (UK), University of Ibadan (Nigeria), University of Witwatersrand (South Africa) and at the Hood College in Washington (US).

Alfred Bosch is also a novelist and essay writer, with several publications focused on Africa and Europe, and publishes articles across various media outlets.

Civil Engineer, urbanist, senior consultant in urban innovation

Co-founder of CiudadHub, the first podcast i Spanish about management and urban Planning.

He currently advises the Barcelona Council for the network of cycle lanes expansion and he is also lecturer in the Externado de Colombia University, in topics as citizen participation. He was executive director of the Colombia-Catalunya Chamber of Commerce and for three years, the Latin America delegate of the Smart City Expo World Congress.

Senior Lecturer in International Politics, University of East Anglia, UK

Simon Curtis is a Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the University of East Anglia, and a Senior Fellow on Global Cities at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. His latest book, Global Cities and Global Order (Oxford University Press) was shortlisted for the 2017 British Studies Association Susan Strange Book Prize.

Councillor, Municipality of Konyaaltı / Antalya

Postgraduate studies, University of Perugia, Italy and Faculty of Literature & Italian Language at University of Ankara.

Political Activities (1994-2014. In the Congress/CoE: Deputy President of the Turkish Delegation , President of the European Local Democracy Week Initiative and Vice President of the EPP. Also Vice President of the Congress of Local & Regional Authorities, President of the Committee on Sustainable Development, Councillor, Municipalty of Muratpasa / Antalya, Deputy Mayor, Municipality of Muratpaşa / Antalya, Vice President of the Congress of Local & Regional Authorities. Rapporteur on the European Charter on Local Self-Government Congress Mission: Observation of elections in Azerbaijan,(Head of the delegation), Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Georgia. Rapporteur of the Local &Regional Democracy of Montenegro, Andorra, and Slovenia.

Professional Activities (1980-2014): General Manager of ANSET Ltd. Şti. (Municipal Company). Member of the International Affairs Committee of the Union of Municipalities of Turkey. Faculty Member at the University of Mediterranean. President and Member of Board of the several NGO’s. General Manager of the Antalya Congress & Exhibition Center. General Manager of the Golden Orange Culture &Art Foundation. Owner of Travel Agency & Professional Tourist Guide

Awards/Achievements: ‘’Woman of the Year in Antalya’’ Reward 2010. Reward 1991 of Adelaide Ristori, Ministry of Fine Arts, Rome, Italy. Several Rewards from national ONGs. Honorary Consul of Italy in Antalya (1991-1998).

Founder and CEO of anteverti, and Curator of Smart City Expo World Congress

Anteverti is a consulting company that advises executives and organizations in projects of transformation and change, focusing on Smart and Open Government initiatives. With more than 20 years at ICT executive positions in public and private sector, she was CIO at Barcelona City Council, Vice President for Public Sector & Health of T-Systems, Director of Operations at the IT Center of the Catalan Government and IT Director at the Organizational Committee of the Barcelona’92 Olympic Games. Pilar Conesa is President of the Advisory Board of the Professional Association of Computer Engineering of Catalonia and she is a member of the Board of Directors at UPC Alumni. Pilar was the first woman to receive the LANIT Telecommunications and IT Honor Award.

She has a BA in Communication, by Iberoamericana University, Torreón. Worked in Free Media projects for indigenous and agricultural organitations in Chiapas, such as "Las Abejas de Acteal" and "EZLN". Did research about Central-American Migration with the Iberoamericana University, Torreón and other organizations from México and Central-America. Collaborated in "Moreleando" SCO, recovering public space through art and culture. She is developing public participation initiatives that impact public policies in the "Consejo Morelos Centro Histórico" SCO. She is currently working on her masters degree in Sociocultural Management and works in the community museum "Recinto al Canto Candenche", to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of the region.

She is author of photography exhibitions "Mujeres de tierra y fuego" about social movements in Mexico and "De paso" about Migration.

Consultant, Worldwatch Institute

Gary T. Gardner is a researcher, writer, and speaker on global sustainability issues, and a hands-on program director. Gary spent more than two decades as a sustainability researcher and Director of Research at the Worldwatch Institute, which focuses on global sustainability issues. There he authored books, papers, chapters, magazine articles, and blogs on a broad variety of environmental, economic, and social sustainability issues, from water scarcity and climate change to malnutrition, green economies, and resource scarcity. He has contributed to 15 editions of the Institute’s State of the World report, including the 2016 edition that focused on sustainable cities. Gary is also the author of Nuclear Nonproliferation: A Primer, and Inspiring Progress: Religions’ Contributions to Sustainable Development. He has represented Worldwatch at local, national, and global conferences and has given dozens of interviews for major print and broadcast outlets worldwide.

Co-founder and director of the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia

Chief architect (2011-2015) of Barcelona City Council with the responsibility of developing the strategic vision for the city and its major development projects.

He also co-founded and directed the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia where he led projects such as Media House Project (with MIT's CBA), HyperCatalunya, or the Fab Lab House. Actually is leading the Valldaura Labs (at Parc de Collserola), and the project Urbanization.org.

His professional office, Guallart Architects has developed projects widely published like the ports of Fugee and Keelung in Taiwan, or the Sociopolis neighborhood in Valencia and now it works in projects of several scales around the world.

He is the author of books like Geologics or The Self-Sufficient City and co-author of the Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture. His work has been exhibited at the Biennale of Venezia or NY MOMA. The American Institute of Architects organized in 2010 a solo exhibition of his work in Washington DC

Professor at the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology.

PhD. In Sociology and Political Science (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain) and post-doctorate in Political Science Department (State University of Campinas, Brazil). He is a research professor at the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS), Mexico, since 1998, and Associate Researcher at Center for Metropolitan Studies.

(São Paulo, Brazil). His main interests focus on citizen participation, State-Society relations, and democratic control of the public, especially in the areas of drinking water and sanitation, urban development, violence and security. He has developed comparative academic research and consulting, mainly in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. Along last years, he was a Visiting research/professor at Sciences Po (France), State University of Campinas (Brazil), University of Los Andes (Colombia), and Institute of Government and Public Policy (Barcelona).

Policy Analyst in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)

Soo-Jin KIM is leading policy dialogues on cities and metropolitan areas through a series of OECD Territorial Reviews within the OECD Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development Division. She has extensive experience in advising local, metropolitan and national governments in urban policy and governance. Before joining the OECD, she worked as a legal advisor and a business strategy consultant for the private sector. She graduated from the Paris Institute of Political Science (Sciences Po Paris) and holds a Master’s in European Public Law from the University of Panthéon-Sorbonne.

President and CEO of Leading Cities, headquartered in Boston, with operations in 10 countries around the world.

As President and CEO, Michael establishes and develops relationships with municipal governments, businesses and universities around the world, creating a global network of partner cities dedicated to implementing Smart City solutions that improve the quality of life in cities. Michael’s career in public service spans from serving three United States Presidents as Special Assistant for White House Operations and Presidential Advance to serving the former Prime Minister of Ireland as a policy research analyst.

CEO, South African Cities Network (SACN)

Sithole has been with the South African Cities Network (SACN) since 2002. He is arguably one of the most knowledgeable people in the country about the journey that our current system of local government has travelled, and particularly the evolution of our municipalities. He has been a consistent advocate and informant of the urban development agenda for over a decade and has helped steadily grow the influence and contributions of the SACN to improving urban governance practice and analysis.

Sithole was previously the Local Government Coordinator at the National Business Initiative (NBI), was involved with conducting capacity building training in Municipal Service Partnership (MSP), and participated in the development of the then National Department of Local Government’s (DPLG) national policy on Integrated Development Planning (IDP).

Sithole’s contributions are well recognized in political and technical circles in South Africa. Reputed for a “no holds barred”, creative and dynamic approach to tackling issues, he has been continually sought after to advise municipal and party leadership, contribute to various Boards (e.g. SANPARKS), and speak at various engagements. He has contributed to strategic processes in various sectors (cooperative governance, human settlements, The Presidency), and is a clear thought leader in the urban sector.

Executive vice president at Regional Plan Association (RPA)

RPA is a civic urban planning organization focused on growth and sustainability in the New York tri-state area. Juliette led the production of the 2017 Fourth Regional Plan, a long-range, comprehensive plan to promote prosperity, equity, health and sustainability in the region. The plan was created over five years and involved hundreds of civic groups, community-grassroots organizations, business leaders and designers, giving the plan a broad base of support as we pivot to implementation.

As executive vice president, she also oversees RPA’s operations, including strategic direction, external communications, development and finance. Juliette has steered a number of RPA’s large initiatives, including the creation of a network of transit-agency executives from around the world. She is also the author of two landmark reports that quantified how much transit service improves home values near train stations. Prior to joining RPA, Juliette worked at Project for Public Spaces, where she managed a range of outreach, education and training programs to help municipalities and state departments of transportation work together and make concordant land use and transportation decisions. Juliette received a bachelor's in political science from Princeton University and a master's in urban planning from Columbia University.

Director of Clarion Futures. CLARION HOUSING GROUP LIMITED.

Phil is a Director of Clarion Housing Group, the UK’s largest Housing Association with 125,000 homes and 300,000 residents.
Phil is responsible for Clarion’s charitable subsidiary Clarion Futures which delivers a wide ranging socio/economic development programme for social housing residents and communities across England.
The programme has 5 strategic objectives; helping people into work, tackling financial and digital exclusion, supporting young people and building stronger communities.
This year Clarion Futures will support over 3,000 unemployed people into work and 5,000 with financial guidance and support.

Lecturer in Architecture and Global Urbanism. Manchester School of Architecture. Manchester Urban Institute. University of Manchester.

Leandro's research focuses on the politics of construction and the role infrastructural repertoires play in the consolidation of extended networks of solidarity and association. He investigates how social movements, construction firms, local organisations and developers use the moment of construction to prefigure territorial articulations. He is currently exploring alternative construction practices in Argentina and Ecuador. He has been involved in creating multiple collaborative platforms to investigate and develop alternative urban interventions. He created Material Politics, an architectural research practice that focuses on the fabrication of radical infraestructures.

Urban social anthropologist and social policy specialist

Emeritus Professor, University of Manchester, where she directed the Global Urban Research Centre.

Previous positions include Lead Specialist, World Bank; Lecturer at the London School of Economics, and at the Development Planning Unit, University College London. Her research, undertaken primarily in urban Latin America, has focused on intergenerational asset accumulation and poverty reduction, climate change asset adaptation, urban violence and insecurity, and gender transformation and just cities. She is the author or editor of over 160 publications including 15 books. She was a speaker and conference panel organizer at the 1996 Istanbul UN-Habitat II, the 2016 Quito UN-Habitat III, and World Urban Forums in Rio and Medellin.

Deputy Governor of Jakarta for Spatial Planning and Environment

Oswar Muadzin Mungkasa holds Master Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Pittsburgh and Ph.D in Public Economics from the University of Indonesia.

Mr Mungkasa held several key managerial posts at the central government of Indonesia prior to the appointment as Deputy Governor of Jakarta for Spatial Planning and Environment in November 2015. Mr Mungkasa was appointed as the Director of Planning and Budgeting at the Ministry of Housing from 2010 to 2013 and as the Director of Spatial Planning and Land at the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) from 2013 to 2015.

Mr Mungkasa is the key person of the Basuki T. Purnama administration in charge for the revision of the Jakarta Spatial Plan 2030 and the Detailed Spatial Plan needed to accelerate infrastructure projects undertaken by the central government and the city administration. The revision is required to accommodate the national strategic projects such as the National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD), rail-based urban transport system, and the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail.

Head of the AMB Cooperation service

Specialist in international cooperation with a long history in the sector. He has worked in several countries of Africa and America at a regional, national and local levels, in the elaboration of policies, strategies and projects and their implementation. He has specialized in gender and diversity transversality, intersection analysis and assessment at the theoretical level. She has developed strategies for incorporating innovative practices in central and southern America, Africa and Catalonia.

Graduate in Environmental Sciences by the UAB (Universitat Autonoma Barcelona); MBA in Water Cycle Management by the UPC (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya); Founder of the first professional association of environmental graduates, currently member of its Advising Committee.

She began its carreer in industrial hazard risk and worked in the private sector for 5 years as a consultant.

Since 2004 works in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, first related to waste treatment and collective selection indicators and information system. In 2012 she joined the sustainability team as project manager for climate change, energy and environmental education.

Director of the Urban Ecology Agency of Barcelona (Agencia de Ecología Urbana de Barcelona).

He owns a Degree in Biological Sciences (1976) and a Degree in Psychology (1980), both from the University of Barcelona. Also, in 1981, he obtained a Diploma in Environmental Engineering from the Ministry of Industry, of Universities and Research and, in 1984, a Diploma in Energy Management from the University of Barcelona.

Past positions include management (at Director level) at Government of Catalonia’s Department of Environment (1992-2000), at Barcelona City Council (1986-1992), as well as Sant Adrià de Besòs City Council (1980-1986). He was also a member of the European Union Committee of Experts for Urban Environment (DGXI).

He wrote various scientific and technical articles about urban planning and was asked to participate in national and international exhibitions as a scientific advisor and as a speaker at national and international conferences, masters and postgraduate programs.

He has developed projects such as strategic plans, urban planning, urban green and biodiversity, mobility, public space, urban metabolism (energy, water, pollution, noise and waste). The most relevant works directed by Mr. Rueda recently are: Urban Mobility Plan of Barcelona (Spain), Urban Regeneration Plan of the Historic Centre of Quito (Ecuador), Design Manual of Public Space in Buenos Aires (Argentina), Participation in the Great Moscow Urban Planning enlargement (Russia), Assessment of Urban Master Plan of a neighborhood in Toulouse (France)

Councillor, Gobierno Regional Metropolitano de Santiago, Chile

Managing Director Oslo Region Alliance

Øyvind Såtvedt is managing director at the Oslo Region Alliance. Øyvind is a political scientist, former researcher at Norwegian Institute for studies in research and higher education (NIFU) and senior adviser at consultancy firm Analyse & Strategi. He was Chief of Staff for the Governing Mayor of Oslo from 2001 – 2008. The Oslo Region alliance consists of 79 local authorities, including the City of Oslo, and five county authorities surrounding Oslo. The Oslo region has about 2.3 million inhabitants. The overall goal is to strengthen the Oslo region as a competitive and sustainable region in Europe.

Leader Regional And Metropolitan Planning UN-Habitat

Remy Sietchiping leads the Regional and Metropolitan Planning Unit at UN-Habitat. He oversees the development of strategic programme of the UN-Habitat including National Urban Policy, urban-rural linkages, metropolitan development and the International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning. He has over 20 years working experience in the UN systems, academia, private sector, public sector and NGOs in Australia, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Jamaica and worldwide. Dr. Sietchiping has over 40 publications including books, peer-reviewed articles, papers in proceedings and reports. He speaks French and English. He holds a Ph.D in Geography from the University of Melbourne, Australia

Co-founder and CEO of Mediaurban, the Urban Content Creation Agency of the Mediapro Group, and committed with urban transformation and social progress

City Design Consultant, specialising on the links between the digital, social, economic and legal issues that contribute to the development of Contemporary Cities.

Maria has a broad experience in urban practice and consultancy, with a strong focus towards innovation and applied technologies to City Design and Masterplanning.

Having served as Projects Director, at the Barcelona City Council, at the Urban Habitat Department (a Macro Area in charge of Housing, Planning, Infrastructures, Utilities, Energy and IT), where we led the transformation of significant parts of the city such as Les Glòries, Diagonal, Passeig de Gràcia, Tres Turons, Torre Baró, Sants and Portes de Collserola... She now leads a multidisciplinary team whose aim is to change the world, by improving real cities.

She has received different awards as an independent architect and has worked for local governments and international organisations such as UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), the World Bank Institute, Medcities Network, and Barcelona Metropolitan Area Cooperation Unit. She has served at the Board of the Catalan Architects Association (COAC), the Metropolitan Strategical Plan of Barcelona and the Cultural Foundation of the Caixa d’Arquitectes.

She holds a MSc City Design and Social Sciences by the London School of Economics and she is a regular contributor to specialized media. Lecturer at the Postgraduate Diploma in Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism at La Salle (PAMUS) and co-director of the new Master in Urban Management at the Barcelona School of Management, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

Lecturer in Urban Development Planning at the School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester, UK.

Alfredo Stein Heinemann is a Guatemalan citizen, currently working as a Lecturer in Urban Development Planning at the School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester, UK. He has more than 34 years of experience of working for international development agencies setting up and evaluating local development, low-income housing and post-disaster reconstruction policies and programmes. He has a PhD from Lund University and an MSc from DPU, University College London. During the last 10 years he has undertaken applied research on climate change adaptation in urban poor areas of cities in Latin America, Asia and Africa.

Born in 1967 in Korea, Taehyung Kim currently works as Director-General of Urban Space improvement Bureau in Seoul Metropolitan Government from 2015.

After graduated from Seoul National University in business administration and architecture, he got his Master in architecture from Columbia University in New York.

He has worked as an architect, urban development strategist and an adjunct professor of architecture in Korean National University of Arts.

As a Director-general of urban space improvement bureau he has focused on planning and managing key urban projects of Seoul metropolitan government as Seoullo, Sewon sky walkways and reaching out community center.

Head of International Relations in the AMB and the General Secretary of the network of Mediterranean cities MEDCITIES

From 1998-2008 and 2011-2013, he worked at the Provincial Government of Barcelona as Head of the European Cooperation Office. From 2008 to 2011, he was the Director of the President’s Office at the Public Audit Office of Catalonia. He has a Postgraduate degree in local government, a Master Degree in European Studies and a Bachelor in Political Science and International Relations. His areas of expertise include EU Funding and European Policies; Lobbying related to urban and regional issues; Internationalisation of local governments; International networks; and Mediterranean cooperation.

General Manager of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB)

Ramon M. Torra i Xicoy graduated as an architect in 1980 at ETSAB Barcelona School of Architecture.

He worked as municipal architect and Director of Territorial Services at the Granollers City Council between 1982 and 1992, and as Director of Technical Services of the Association of Municipalities of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB) until 2008. He has been Manager of the Municipal Association of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona from 2008 to 2011. He has drafted numerous planning documents, such as the General Plan of Granollers, Partial and Special Plans, as well as several public space and architectural projects.

He teaches masters and postgraduate courses at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and the Public Administration School of Catalonia (EAPC); and he is a lecturer on topics related with urban planning and architecture, in different countries. He has written articles for several specialised media, books on public space, and publications on public management.

Secretary General of Metropolis

Previously, he was the Executive Director of Metropolis, the Europe and International Strategy Office of the Barcelona Provincial Council, as well as the head of the Development Cooperation Office of the Barcelona Provincial Council and the Executive Director of the Orientation and Coordination Office of the URB-AL III programme. He has also been the Head of the European Cooperation Office of the Barcelona Provincial Council, Coordinator of the Permanent Secretariat of the network Arco Latino, the Head of the European Union Unit of Intermón-Oxfam, Programme Information and Communications Coordinator of Oxfam International and Deputy to the European Coordinator of Frères des Hommes Europe. He is as well certified by the Observatory of the Decentralised Cooperation between the EU and Latin America as a trainer of trainers.

He has a degree in law, as well as a Master’s Degree in European Studies (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), a Master’s Degree in International Humanitarian Aid (Universidad de Deusto) and a Post-degree in International Relations (Universitat de Barcelona).

Researcher at the Institute for Social Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Alicia Ziccardi is member of the National System of Researchers level III and member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences, which coordinated the Social Sciences section. Graduate Professor of Political and Social Science and Planning, UNAM. She was the Director of the University Studies Program City of UNAM.

PhD in Economics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where she earned Honorable Mention and Gabino´s Barreda Medal. BA in Sociology from the University of Buenos Aires and Master in Sociology from the University Research Institute of Rio de Janeiro. Graduate Program Graduate Research Training in Urban and Regional Development CEUR- Torcuato Di Tella Institute. In 2001.

She is the author of several books about urban and social policies, and author of more than 200 papers.